Here is the rest of story in the words of Debora: 

I remember going survey by survey and thinking: I have to talk with this student, and with this one, and with this one, and so on. I finally realized that I had to work with every single student, about 90 in all.

Anger was one of the most dominant states, as well as a deep existential fear. I realized that most of them found life pointless, painful, sad, a waste, and many had decided that a good way to end all of their suffering was with suicide.

The psychologist basically gave me the result and said: I need help; what can you do with this?

I have to admit that I was a little overwhelmed by the answers of the students, all I could say was: let's help them reduce their immersion in these states by doing some Big Mind with all of them!! The psychologist's response was: Great, that is exactly what I was looking for you to do!

So grade by grade, I did a whole morning of Big Mind with all the kids. There were three different groups and I called many different voices. Of course we did have some voices ready to call, but as Genpo Roshi (founder of The Big Mind Process which combines Voice Dialogue with Zen Wisdom) always told me: Never have an agenda and be open to what comes up. 
So that is what I did.

After some hard work of and calling voices such as: anger, fear, the witness, self respect, self love, the victim, the abuser, self-worth, life, appreciation, precious human birth and so on, something wonderful happened. Some kids cried; some had awareness on their own faults; some realized narcissistic and self centered behaviors, and how those were projecting onto others, therefore also realizing they were the victim and the executor at the same time.

By using the Big Mind process to help the kids bring mindfulness to these states of mind great relief was realized.

Regret was another voice that came out. This voice turned out to be very common in all of them. After talking from and to that voice, they could see and articulate by themselves how regretting and repenting helps us change our motives for our present actions. They also saw that there is no point whatsoever in spending their lives thinking about something that they ultimately cannot change, as they cannot go back in time to change the past, so they could now focus on the present actions and reactions.

Some of the most rebellious kids, previous gang leaders and members, opened up and showed their pain, emotions and vulnerability in front of the rest of the class. They realized that their leadership can also be used to do good and to empower other students.

Mostly they learned that they cannot demand to be loved by others, but that they can begin to love and respect themselves, and therefore to move on with their lives without allowing others to control or manipulate them. They realized that there is no one to blame but oneself for not taking responsibility for our lives. The also learned that with just a little mindfulness on their current states, ease of being could arise in relationship to them, and that those awful states might not bother them so much anymore.

It was interesting to see how all the groups were able to come together beyond their differences as one unique voice - to talk and to experience the same wisdom together. They could take some distance from themselves and see their own flaws and also their own gifts and power. The kids also learned to appreciate how precious they are in their uniqueness and to respect the uniqueness of others. In fact we all caught a glimpse of our Oneness.

Thank you for reading.

Debora Prieto
Mick Quinn
Integral Heart Foundation, Guatemala.